Evidence from South Africa for a protracted end-Permian extinction on land
Abstract
Mass extinctions permanently altered life's evolutionary trajectory five times in Earth's history, and the end-Permian extinction was the greatest of these biotic crises. South Africa's unparalleled fossil record provides a window into mass extinction dynamics on land. We analyze a unique dataset comprising hundreds of precisely positioned tetrapod fossils, identifying a protracted (∼1 Ma) extinction. This contrasts with the rapid marine extinction, demonstrating that the effects of biotic crises vary prominently among Earth's surface environments. We also identify the blooming of "disaster taxa" before the main extinction rather than in its aftermath as assumed previously. These changes contributed to breaking the incumbency of previously dominant mammal relatives (synapsids) after the extinction and to the Triassic rise of crocodile- and dinosaur-line archosaurs.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- April 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.2017045118
- Bibcode:
- 2021PNAS..11817045V
- Keywords:
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- Mass extinction;
- Permo-Triassic;
- Diversity dynamics;
- Lystrosaurus;
- Karoo Basin